comparative cognition laboratory

News

Thanks to some promotional work from the PR crew at UoN and MQ we've been all over the webnews with one of the latest pieces of research to come out of the lab. In a collaborative effort with Dr Darren Burke, we've shown that the angle your face is viewed from changes how attractive you look.

We are postulating that the differences in viewpoint that males and females have of each other's faces as a result of males being taller has led to the evolution of sexual dimorphism of faces. So when you look at a female face from slightly above (the typical male perspective) this exaggerates the signal of femininity that her face is giving off, making her appear more attractive. Conversely, men appear more masculine when viewed from slightly below.

You can here me talking about this research with Bob Hughes from newsucanuse.org here.